The Building Commission recently brought together stakeholders from across the building and plumbing industries to look back at its past achievements and hear about its future directions.

The Building the Industry 2013 presentation and sundowner was held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre on 6 December 2013 and acted as the industry launch for the Commission’s Strategic Plan 2013-2016.

Tying in closely with the directions of the Commerce Corporate Plan 2013-2016, the Commission’s strategic plan includes the vision of ‘brilliant service, great buildings’ and a mission to develop and operate a risk-based system of building and plumbing regulation.

The event was attended by about 50 people, representing building and plumbing industry associations, boards, training providers, local governments, state government departments and other divisions of Commerce.

Parliamentary Secretary Paul Miles MLA, representing the Minister for Commerce Michael Mischin MLC, made the opening address.

“Bringing all of WA’s building regulation together under one roof, reforming the legislation and finding stable funding have all been huge and difficult undertakings but they will play a key role in our future plan and the continuing success of the industry,” Mr Miles said.

A presentation by Western Australia’s first Building Commissioner Peter Gow provided an outline of the building and plumbing industries and the challenges and opportunities facing them before looking back at the building legislation of 10 years ago and the milestones that led to the reformed building regulation of today. The Commissioner also outlined the Commission’s achievements since 2011.

In making the closing speech, Commerce Director General Brian Bradley acknowledged there were continuing service improvements to be made to Commerce’s information systems, processes and its influencing of other areas of government. But he said the future looked bright for WA business.

“We are now well on our way to having a world class business environment that is productive, innovative, fair and safe,” he said.